


Not Just a Pretty Face

by BluePlanetTrash



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Genius Lance, Hurt/Comfort, Insecure Lance (Voltron), Unappreciated Lance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-06
Updated: 2017-11-06
Packaged: 2019-01-30 05:05:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12646680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BluePlanetTrash/pseuds/BluePlanetTrash
Summary: Lance didn't get into the Garrison for charity. When the paladins go too far with their teasing, he decides that he isn't going to take it anymore. Hopefully, they can get him to forgive them in time and Kolivan may help him more than they ever could.





	1. Chapter 1

“Thank you for agreeing to meet with us Princess Allura,” Kolivan bowed to her. She gave him a small smile and a nod. They were gathered around the dining hall table with the Paladins and Alteans on one side and the Blade of Marmora on the other. Kolivan pulled up a stolen layout of a Galran base and placed it on the table.

“There is valuable information, regarding the locations of important members of the Blade and our allied rebel forces stored in this base’s hard-drive, it is imperative that we get our hands on it and away from the Empire,” Kolivan started. “We need to find a way in without being spotted, and complete the mission without alerting the Galra. We were able to infiltrate successfully some time ago, and have access to some of the surveillance feeds and schematics,”

Immediately the room was filled with the sound of ideas being thrown around; Lance quietly listened to the different scenarios coming from his teammates and stored them in the back of his mind quickly picking out the flaws and how he could secretly tweak them when they were out in the field. He realized that the others would reluctant to listen to his ideas because of how he had already presented himself to the group. So he decided to quietly help them in the background instead. He pulled up the information on his screen and scrolled through the information available. Without a word he began highlighting points on his map that would require extra surveillance once they entered the base. Unbeknownst to him; Kolivan was watching over his shoulder with interest and nodding along to each dot. After Lance stopped and absentmindedly nodded his head, Kolivan put his hand on his shoulder. Lance yelped and he shot around to look at the leader of the Blade.

“Apologizes Blue Paladin, I would like to hear your ideas for this infiltration,” he admitted giving Lance all his attention. Lance gave a tentative smile and opened his mouth, only to be interrupted by Hunk and Pidge’s laughter. His head turned to the two and he shrunk into himself a bit knowing that the two were laughing at him. Kolivan only looked with a raised brow.

“Sorry Kolivan, but you don’t want to ask Lance for ideas,” Pidge giggled. The two of them cracked up into laugher, eventually dragging the rest of them minus Lance, Kolivan, and Coran who were looking at them incredulously.

“I apologize, but perhaps I’m misunderstanding. Please explain why I should not consider the Blue Paladin’s suggestions,” Kolivan said stepping forward. The laughter stopped aside from a few sniggers and they looked toward him.

“Kolivan. Its Lance, Mr. Razzle Dazzle, get all the girls and glory,” Pidge said with finality. “His plans probably involve a lot of shooting and not getting anything done,”

“Yah, he has fighting power but when it comes to infiltration…” Hunk continued with a shrug. Lance could feel the blush traveling up his face, and his shoulders bunched up further as if to protect him.

“All his brain can store, are cheesy pickup up lines and weak insults,” Keith commented. The others burst out laughing again; Allura and Shiro only giving weak smiles. Kolivan looked down at the blue paladin and while he seemed shocked and saddened; he could see anger stirring in his eyes as well.

“Hey! I have more in my brain than that, I have good ideas!” He cried trying to defend himself.

“Really, a thousand times ten?” Keith asked with a smirk. Lance’s eyebrows drew down with an angry grimace.

“I was trying to break the tension,” he growled. His hands were clutching the armrests of his chair tightly, his knuckles turning white from the pressure. Shiro stood up from his chair and carefully approached the angered teen.

“Its okay Lance,” he said soothingly. “We all have our weaknesses, this is just yours,” he gave him a soft smile. Lance looked at him in pure disbelief; this man was the leader of their group and he was going to let Lance believe that he couldn’t contribute to the planning of this mission.

“My weakness?!” Lance growled. “You know what?! I’m done!” He yelled jumping out of his seat and pulling his screen along with him to the front of the room. The others looked at him with quirked eyebrows.

“What? Going to shows us the pretty dots on your map?” Keith taunted with a smirk.

“No, each of these dots is a mistake that you over looked,” he hissed. He pointed to the first one and pulled up the surveillance from the base’s server room. “This is a PXY-6075 system, you were going to go in blind with a code not appropriate for this system, it would shut down the entire thing and we would lose everything,” he swiped across his screen and sent a code to Pidge’s system. She pulled it up out of curiosity and her jaw dropped before she looked up at Lance.

“Lance, this is genius,” she muttered. He ignored her and went to the next beacon. A security camera showed a hallway were Shiro suggested they infiltrate on the way to the server room. He turned to the leader with crossed arms.

“This hallway is filled with blind spots and vents, how could you even think that this was a good place to enter?” Lance asked with a quirked brow. Shiro only crossed his arms in defense.

“It is the fastest way to the server room, we need to get in and out quickly,” he replied. Lance gave him a short glare.

“So because it is the fastest way to the server room, it is automatically the safest, you’re putting the safety of your teammate on the line in order to complete the mission faster?” he asked getting closer to Shiro who tried to avoid his eye. “What would have happened if we went down here and there were drones or weapons in the vents, we could have died in there,” he pulled the map back and brought up a different hallway. Shiro looked at it and back at Lance for an explanation.

“It’s a maintenance hallway, the other direction from where this one is, it is fully surveillanced with no blind spots and no places for anything to be hidden,” he said pushing the screen into Shiro’s who looked at it sheepishly. He zoomed out letting the outside of the base show. He turned to Allura who jumped at being in the teen’s sights.

“The defense of the base is different from the cruisers we come across Allura; if we had gone on the mission and used what we usually did we would have gotten caught and the entire mission would be compromised,” he stated bluntly. He brought up the schematics of the base and pointed along the foundation “This area is susceptible to fire, if I send out an electrical pulse along the base, it should collapse the barrier without any alerts to the Galra,” she carefully nodded it response watching the tiny barrier breaking down on her screen. Lance looked around at the ashamed paladin avoiding his gaze around him.

“Need I go on?” He asked quietly. He humphed when he only received sheepish nods. He turned to Shiro and pushed a finger into his chest.

“Next time when you say something about someone’s “weakness”, don’t. None of us are weak and you out of all of us should be the one to see that,” he said pushing him back. He turned to Keith.

“You shouldn’t be so insulting,” he said standing beside his chair. “I know that I haven’t shown you what I’m capable of but you don’t have to be so condescending,”

“You shouldn’t be so quick to judge,” he stated turning to focus on Pidge. “I try to come off as the carefree goofball because let’s face it, we’re fighting in a war and we’re a bunch of kids who probably shouldn’t be out here,” he turned to look at Hunk as well at this point. “You should know that I’m smarter than I act, you have known me the longest,”

“Lance,” Hunk tried but Lance only raised his hand between the two of them.

“Please let me finish,” he pleaded. “I wasn’t at the Garrison as a charity case or anything, and everyone here ignored that. I tried to do the best I could to keep the peace and keep the image of comic relief because it seemed to help you perform better,” he looked down at the ground trying to avoid the gazes of his teammates. His hands were shaking by his sides, the only visible sign of his anger through the entire rant until he started to feel a tremble in his lip and tears gathering in his eyes.

“Lance…” he heard Shiro hesitant voice call. His head shot up causing a tear to roll down his cheek as his eyebrows furrowed in anger.

“No! I don’t want to hear it!” he shouted shocking the other into silence. “You have been pulling this shit for too long, and you didn’t think anything of it! Well, it hurts! It hurts and no one cared enough about me to stop it!”

“Lance, we’re sorry,” Pidge said reaching out for the teen trying to put her hand on his arm. He slapped it away and started making his way to the door to leave. Before he left he put his hand on the doorway and looked back at Allura.

“Call me for the mission, I need to cool down for a bit,” he said quietly. Angry tears still streaked down his face, be he felt and looked resigned now. He turned and left, leaving the bridge in thick silence. It was broken by Kolivan making his way to the entrance to follow Lance to wherever he decided to hole up. Just like Lance, he looked at the others before he left.

“Perhaps next time, you should get to know your soldiers before you judge what they are capable of,”


	2. Chapter 2

“Blue Paladin!” Kolivan called looking to each side when he left the bridge. Lance looked behind him with a slight wince, but at noticing that it was Kolivan relaxed a bit.

“Sorry about all of that big guy,” he said sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck.

“We must talk Blue Paladin,” he stated, walking towards the boy.

“Oh, um, okay,” he started. “Is the lounge okay?” he asked.

“Wherever you are comfortable,” Kolivan replied putting his hand on Lance’s back. Lance nodded his head and started leading him to the room. They sat down on the couch and Lance looked down at the ground waiting for Kolivan to start. He expected the leader of the Blade to berate him for storming out of the room and nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt his hand settle on his upper arm. He turned to look at the galra, unlike usual, he had a soft open expression on his face.

“Please explain to me Blue Paladin, why does this upset you so much?” he asked calmly.

“You can call me Lance you know,” Lance muttered moving his gaze to the other side of the room.

“Lance then; I’m afraid I don’t understand much of what happened on the bridge, would you please explain to me? If you don’t mind,” Kolivan asked. Lance took a deep breath and nodded his head in understanding.

“Basically they were making fun of me, calling me stupid, saying that I didn’t understand anything they were talking about,” he said bitterly. He clenched his fists up on top of his knees glaring at the floor.

“But that isn’t true,” Kolivan finished for him. He nodded and closed his eyes against the rage that was building in him again. Just as quickly as it built, it fell and sadness grasped him instead.

“No it isn’t, in fact, it’s the exact opposite,” he said looking into Kolivan’s eyes. “Where I’m from, I’m considered a genius,”

“Is that so?” Kolivan drawled giving the young man a calm smile. Lance gave a small nod and looked forward.

“Yup,” he said popping the p at the end. “In Varadero, I was top of the class and ready to join the military there just like the rest of my family, but then the Galaxy Garrison found out about me and my skills as a tactician and programmer. They offered me a full ride scholarship and me and my family citizenship if I accepted, I mean how could I even think about refusing? I mean I don’t know how citizenship works in space, but I must have been somewhat important if they offered it to me,”   
He couldn’t stay still anymore and leaped off the couch to pace in front of Kolivan who sat quietly to listen to the upset paladin. His face scrunched up a bit in confusion when Lance mentioned citizenship, but decided not to ask questions yet.

“So that’s what we did, I accepted the offer and started learning English which isn’t fucking easy. But that’s okay because we made it, and I had my family with me too which is something a lot of people can’t say,” he paused to take in a shaky breath and pushed his fingers into the bridge of his nose. He stood stiffly, letting himself take a few breaths before he continued.

“So the Garrison!” He cheered trying to perk himself up. “They offered to give me all of these things and in exchange, all I had to do was get a spaceship to Kerberos,” Kolivan quirked his eyebrow at the statement. “I know, easy right,” he said sarcastically.

“I thought the Green Paladin said that the mission that brought the Black Paladin here was the most advanced your planet has been with space exploration,” he said. Lance puffed up his chest and gave a smug little smile at the statement.

“Of course it was, that was why I was so important,” he started only to slump a moment after. “Well, I didn’t do it alone, of course, so I guess I’m not that important; never mind, we’re getting off topic,” he shook his head as if trying to dislodge the distracting thought.

“It is correct to assume that this Kerberos mission is important though?” Kolivan asked. Lance’s head whipped around to look at him with his mouth gaping.

“Yes! Its basically the only reason why I was at the Garrison in the first place, as I said before I was just going to join the military in Cuba with my family but this opportunity was to die for,” he stated, squeezing his eyes shut. He thought of the opportunities that opened up to them when they moved and sighed.

“Anyways, we went to America and next thing I know I’m at orientation for classes and I was going to just join the generic fields engineering, computer science, meteorology you know; but that morning before I went to go, my mamá sat me down and told me to find something that I would grow to love and I would never grow tired of. I was kind of confused because at this point I was so sure of my path, that I already had my class sheet filled up and ready to hand in at the end of the tour,” he thought of his mamá and the smile she gave him before he walked out that door. Looking like she already knew that he was going to have a great day.

“She was so adamant about it and I didn’t know why, I already knew what I liked and I was going to gain the key to my future as well, I thought she was crazy,” he admitted shaking his head and dropping to sit next to Kolivan again. He was about to open his mouth to comment but stopped when he saw the easy smile stretched across his face as he got lost in memory.

“That is until we visited the flight simulators; they walked us in and it was just the pod and blank space and suddenly it just got pitch black, we were all freaking out. But then, there was this big flash and there were stars everywhere and planets, galaxies and meteorites, just everything and it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen in my life,” he gave a breathless chuckle as he looked at Kolivan. “Then the sim started and I was just mesmerized; whoever was in that booth was dominating the front lines, no one could get close to them and I must have stood there for twenty doboshes with my mouth hanging open, watching them. But then, they turned off the sim so we could meet the pilot and ask questions about the classes and stuff; and after a few minutes out pops Shiro,”

“I didn’t realize that you met the Black Paladin so soon,” Kolivan commented. Instantly Lance shook his head and waved his hands around frantically.

“Met is a loose term! A very very loose term, I didn’t even speak to Shiro until we saved him in the desert before coming to space,” he said flustered. Kolivan only nodded his head and looked forward.

“I see,” he said coaxing Lance to continue his story.

“Well, anyways, Shiro got out to do a little talk about the classes, what a pilot in the Garrison does, and all about the missions he had already been on; and when he talked about piloting I could see in his eyes how much he loved it, and that’s when I knew that I wanted to fly and when I decided that Takashi Shirogane was my hero,” he admitted quietly rubbing the back of his neck. “I was right, I did love it, it was the one thing in my life so far that was actually difficult for me to learn, and I wasn’t good at it. I-I knew that I wasn’t but it didn’t matter because I loved it so much, it made me feel human sometimes,” His face was glowing with happiness, but as soon as it appeared it was gone again and the boy was looking dejectedly at the ground.

“I don’t know when Pidge and Hunk started thinking that I was stupid,” he said curling into himself. “I wasn’t around much during the first while of the Garrison, whatever free time I had I spent it with the other scientists working on the Kerberos mission. I guess it started when I used sneaking off into town as an excuse when they asked why I was gone for so long,” he let out a humourless laugh and felt his throat tighten. “Now that I think of it, it does sound like something an idiot would say,” Kolivan could see the paladin slowly breaking down beside him and scooted closer to offer some sort of comfort to the boy.

“Keith I understand, he hates me,” he muttered trying to blink away the tears that were forming in his eyes. “All he’s seen from me so far has been an empty-headed flirting mess,” He clenched his jaw tightly, he didn’t want to cry about this, and it was a dumb reason to. He curled his arms around himself and lifted his legs onto the couch.

“But Shiro, I thought he saw more to me than the others did, and it hurts but I guess I deserve it after getting him and his crew stuck in space,” he choked finally letting himself sink into the pain. Kolivan let out a quiet rumble and pulled the boy to his chest to rest underneath his chin. After a moment’s hesitation, Lance gripped onto Kolivan’s suit tightly and let out a sad wail. The galra continued to rub his back and let out comforting noises.

“It was okay at the Garrison because I had my family to talk to and they knew, but out here they all thought I was some clueless idiot,” he whispered to Kolivan listlessly. “I’m nothing without my brain, so what was I even worth to them?” Kolivan closed his eyes and cupped the back of Lance’s head to cuddle him closer.

“Lance, you are worth much more than you realize,” he said softly. “You are an exceptional pilot, a glorious marksman, and now we realize you are a genius. Your teammates are the ones that assumed you to be something you’re not, now they have to face the consequences of their actions, not you,”

Lance didn’t answer and only nodded his head from where it rested on Kolivan’s chest.

* * *

The team turned to the doors when they heard them hiss open. Kolivan’s face was blank but he had his hand on Lance’s shoulder. Lance smiled up at the galra and walked to his friends who immediately started apologizing.

“I’m so sorry Lance!” Hunk cried grabbing him by the shoulders and sniffing as tears poured down his face.

“I’m sorry too!” Pidge joined latching onto Lance’s legs when Hunk lifted him in a hug. Lance gave them a weak smile and patted Hunk gently on the arm when he started sobbing into his shirt.

“It’s okay guys, I forgive you,” he replied. “Can you please let me down now?” he asked kicking his feet around.

“Sorry!” Hunk wailed as he placed his feet on the floor. He wiped his eyes and nose and looked guilty down at the ground as Keith walked up to Lance.

“I’m sorry Lance,” he said sincerely. “You’re right, I’m a condescending jerk sometimes and I let it get out of hand,” he shifted from foot to foot and avoid looking at him. Lance let out a huff of laughter that made Keith’s head shoot up.

“I forgive you,” he said punching him lightly in the shoulder. Keith gave him a hesitant smile and stepped back when Shiro came forward. He had a sad frown on his face and his eyebrows were wrinkled in guilt.

“I failed you as a leader and as a friend Lance, I should have paid more attention to my teammates, I am so so sorry,” he said weakly, guilt evident in his voice. He tried to keep his eyes on Lance’s face but slowly found himself looking to the floor instead. He looked back up when he felt a hand on his shoulder and found Lance giving him a soft smile.

“We all have something we could work on, that doesn’t mean you failed us as a leader Shiro, I forgive you,” Shiro let out a breath of relief and put his hands on his knees.

“Shiro?” Lance’s voice asked hesitantly. He stood up and looked at the paladin.

“Yeah?”

“I know it wasn’t really my fault but I need to get it out, so I’m sorry I got you captured on Kerberos,” he announced. Shiro’s face scrunched up in confusion as he looked at Lance.

“Huh? But you didn’t have anything to do with Kerberos,” he said cocking his head. Lance twiddled his thumbs absentmindedly and scuffed his shoe on the ground.

“Actually, I planned the entire voyage and programmed the ship,” he admitted not looking up from where he was looking. There was a beat of silence before they let out various sounds of disbelief, Pidge grabbed him by the shoulders and madly shook him screaming.

“I never noticed your name in the reports,” Shiro said thinking back, trying to pick out names from the papers.

“Oh, I had the codename Cub,” he said. At that Pidge’s arms and mouth dropped in shock.

“You’re Cub?” She asked, he nodded and gave her a smile. “Oh my god, you’re the best hacker I’ve ever seen, I based all of my codes off of yours,” she admitted, still in shock.

“Wow, thanks!” He said scratching the back of his neck in embarrassment.

“How the hell do you manage to pull this off?” Keith asked astonished. Lance looked around at his amazed teammate. They may not be the most perfect people in the world, but they were family to him. He put his hands on his hips and gave them a grin.

“Would you like to hear the whole story?”

**Author's Note:**

> Come visit me at my Tumblr too!: https://blueplanettrash.tumblr.com/


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